“He got off too easily!”
That was the lingering thought of the 28-year-old mother of the five-year-old child that was sexually assaulted by alleged paedophile and sex predator, Franklyn Chea Callender.
Callender was found hanging from a rope tied to a mango tree near Cemetery Street, Princes Town.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday on the death of Callender, the woman said that when she heard the news she was very shocked.
She also admitted that she did not know that Callender had been arrested and charged, and was out on bail for rape and robbery.
“We have known each other for one year and we got involved intimately and were together for ten months. It is when I saw the pictures and videos of my child which was about two weeks ago I broke up with him,” the mother said.
“Everything has come like a shock and I am trying to cope with things. I never knew he was like this and never had the slightest clue or suspicion because he was so kind, nice and quiet to me,” she added. The woman said that she was even scared to think of what he had done to other children in secret and the torment he had put them through.
“He was always around children, even his own. I feel that his own child mother also had no clue of this. This is such a frightening thing,” the woman said. “I wanted him to be arrested and go through trial, not to go easy like this at all,” she added.
The woman said that she was going through Callender's cellphone one day when she came across horrific pictures and videos of Callender forcing her daughter to perform oral sex on him. In one video he was heard telling her that she would get snacks if she was good and did not tell anyone because of the trouble she would get into if she did.
Asked how her daughter was doing, the woman replied that her daughter clung to her a great deal but she hoped that one day she would forget her trauma and grow into a normal young woman.
“She playing as normal but have moments that she would throw some serious tantrums but thank God that he did not go further with her and scar her for life. I am hoping that she grows out of it somehow and that there is no long-term effect,” the mother said.
The mother said on Friday she was taken to the police station where she was given a form to sign up for professional counselling for her and her daughter. She added that she was hoping if the counselling sessions came through it would help her deal with this difficult emotional and mental situation.
The mother also had a warning for mothers like herself: “Keep your children close to you at all times. Do not leave them with no strangers. Watch every move and examine them. Do not even trust an uncle, nobody!”
On Friday, police found strapped to Callender’s stomach a laptop which is believed to contain more pictures of him engaging in sexual activity with children.
Members of the Police Service Cyber Crimes Unit were said to be going through the computer “with a fine-tooth comb,” to see if the five-year-old child of his former lover was his only victim or if there were pictures/videos of others.
Callender’s body was discovered by passers-by hanging from a four-foot length of rope suspended from a mango tree some 30 feet from Cemetery Street, metres from a nearby burial site.
Padarath calls for sex offenders’ registry
In light of the death of alleged child molester Franklyn Chea Callender, Princes Town MP Barry Padarath has joined the chorus of activists to lobby the Government for the establishment of a sex offender’s registry.
In a release yesterday, Padarath said a registry will be able to address sexual offences, not only against children but also adults and would be a preventative measure as opposed to reactionary.
He said once the list was compiled and continues to be updated, citizens must have dialogue on publishing the names of sex offenders, “since the identities of criminals should not be protected,” Padarath said.
Police said Callender, 31, a security guard of Gajadhar Lands, Princes Town, was found hanging from a mango tree at Cemetery Street around 1.30 pm Friday. His death came four days after his girlfriend was shown photographs of him sexually assaulting her five-year-old daughter.
Padarath said the former People’s Partnership government was engaged in putting together the framework for the registry and called on Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi to expedite its establishment.